dancermom2

I agree that the ballet that I would most want to see is a beautiful ballet...music, scenery, costumes and choreography all in balance. I would like something that is a delight to the eye to see and the ear to listen to. Vague I know. It's something that is hard to articulate but when you see it you know. What I know distracted me mightily in Peter Martin's Swan Lake was the jarring colors of the costumes and the scenery.

Then there is the ruining pointe shoes by accident...such as forgetting that the dance bag is not under the umbrella and its pouring rain...and I mean pouring. The end result being very wet unusable pointe shoes! Or putting your wet bathing suit from swimming in PE in the bag with the pointe shoes and finding soaking wet pointe shoes. We aren't quite sure which is the culprit but the end result was a new pair of shoes down the "drain"!

Oh I realize that if it isn't in the NY Times doesn't mean it doesn't happen. I also read the NY Newsday, The West Side Spirit (tiny paper for the Upper West Side of Manhattan) and scan the internet news sites...and well...I only heard about Peter's new designation here. But that explains it if it made the society page...of all the places I NEVER read because it's fluff it's there. And I love the picture of having to go to get a court order to protect him for demolition.

I actually don't remember seeing any other mention of this in the NY Times...was it mentioned anywhere else? My point being it seems like it is much ado about something not many people noticed happened. And in any case, like all things designated as landmarks in NYC...buildings or living beings...people differ in whether it is warranted!

Just remember...The Sun is a relatively new newspaper in NYC that has a circulation around 25,000 which in this city is diddlysquat as my kids would say. Most people in the city don't know it exists as a counterpoint to the NY Times. ("conservative v. liberal" viewpoints.)

I just saw an ad in the current Dance Magazine for this study...it had an awful picture of a child in too big ballet slippers...talking about eating disorders and the study they are doing. Gave me the creeps to tell you the truth. It may be a kosher study but the implied statement about dancers is a stereotype and the picture manipulative. They are doing a clinical study on a medication for girls severly underweight or have been diagnosed with an ED and how the medication helps bone strength. I don't know...guinea pig time? :rolleyes: Just checked on the ad...it has a different number...1-800-753-5391 and the site is GirlsBoneHealth.com. Is it just coincidence that there are two of these going on or are their two different contact numbers? :confused:

If you do a search there was a big discussion on the new production when it was in NYC this past summer. I am not sure if it is in the La Bayadere section now or in the recent performances section where it was originally. What comes to mind is....LONG ballet (3 hours+) and lots of mime! But look at the threads.

Before even getting to the question of which ballets should be on tv there is a more fundamental issue...the tv producers and directors and the camera men need to learn how to film ballet. They invariably get it wrong and it is so frustrating to watch ballet on tv because they switch to a close up of a face or cut out the legs or you lose the corp. Tv does not show ballet at its best because it isn't filmed right in the first place. :confused:

That's the point...if hair color is associated with a role in ballet and it's blonde or brunette...would an Asian or Black dancer be cast in the role? So when will Albert Evans get used more? Or Aesha Ashe in a traditional role associated with blonde or brunette hair let alone skin color?

I hestitate to bring this up but talking about blonde versus brunette and what comes down to white beauty cuts out minorities of color completely. The question arises whether or not the lack of minorities in major ballet companies is due to this sterotypical casting or thinking of what a ballet dancer should look like to be considered appropriate for the role or beautiful. If you are saying you are looking for a blonde versus a brunette you eliminate completely Asian, Hispanic, or Black dancers.

I have a very good idea where the dirty pointe shoes come from...the rehearsal rooms and stage floors are dirty (do they ever mop over there???) and cause black marks on the bottoms of the shoes. I would guess that given the financial constraints the Kirov is probably operating under they can't buy new pointe shoes each performance and are using shoes that have been used in a prior rehearsal and or performance.

Somebody else noticed that the Kirov Orchestra has a lovely sound and plays beautifully with out slurred passages and at just the right tempo. They do not overpower but seem to compliment the dancing on stage. Of all the three orchestras I have heard, ABT's, NYCB's and the Kirov's...the Kirov's is by far the best from a musical standpoint.

Those who remain in the audience are happy and clapping for the dancers through the curtain calls! And to the comment on being prepared for what La Bayadere is before going by Alexandra...I think she has a point. My husband went to watch last night with full knowledge of what to expect in the first two acts from my reports to him and from reading these boards! The result was that he actually told me during his intermission reports that it wasn't as bad as I described it and he enjoyed it. Perhaps what we have here is a need for dance education. Not everyone is as well versed in ballet lore as most of the posters here and do not know what to expect when they walk in to see La Bayadere and are taken aback by what they see as a lack of dancing. Does anyone know why there is such a huge pause when Solor goes off in Act IV before he comes back on...is it that he can't find his bow????

I know what the black stuff was on the bottom of the shoes...it was dirt with a capital D. My daughter is one of the kids in La Bayadere and her shoes are literally black from the rehearsal floor and the stage. It is not some fancy noise deadening finish just plain old yucky dirt that makes you wonder if they ever clean the floor over there!

The kids answered an open call audition last week Tuesday (7-2). They chose 20 kids and 6 understudies. They had one 2 hour rehearsal that day, 4 hours on Wednesday, 4 hours on Thursday for the kids trying for the Manu dance, 4 hours on Friday, 4 hours on Saturday. 2 hours on Sunday, run through with company on Sunday. Dress rehearsal on Monday and then voila, time to appear on stage ready or not. I think you can see that there was not a lot of time to rehearse the kids. Considering the time that they had to rehearse I have to say that they did a remarkable job. I think that saying that they were obviously not Vaganova trained and or my gosh are some of them (*gasp*) SAB kids like that is the end of the world is unfair to the children who did work and did as good a job as can be expected considering the rehearsal time and the fact that they are not all from Vaganova based schools. While there is an argument that they should be Vaganova trained to be on the stage at all with the ultimate in Russian ballet companies should have been addressed at the audition. The Kirov did choose children afterall. There was also the communication issue...Russian ballet master and english speaking kids with an interpreter who tried to help bridge the gap. The kids are having a wonderful time and feel privileged to be on stage with the members of the Kirov. I know because one of the children is my daughter who is SAB trained and is used to having 3 times as much rehearsal time to get ready for a part like the bugs in Midsummer or the Garland Waltz in Sleeping Beauty which is more comparable to the Lotus Blossom dance. And no, I was not one of the wildly cheering out of proportion parents at the end of a marathon of a ballet although I did clap. I would have mortified my other daughter who was watching with me if I had. The length of the ballet was intense. I thought that ABT's Giselle started out slowly but this meandered to set the story with a sprinkling of dancing in the first 2 Acts and the real dancing did not commence until the Shades. It was an operatic ballet without the singing. There were 3 intermissions and they could have shortened it by cutting out the first intermission but my daughter informed her mother it was a scene change so they had to have an intermission to change the scenery. Oh well...but getting out at 11:45pm for a ballet is a little too exhausting regardless of how beautiful the dancing is...which it was. I am still tired today from getting to bed at 1am! Just our of curiosity...are there any other ballets out there that have as long a running time or is this the longest ballet out there?

I saw ABT in Swan Lake last night...and while it was beautiful and gloriously danced I have to say the one distraction was the noisy feet. I have come to the conclusion that it has to be the accoustics of the Metropolitan Opera House. It can't be that the whole corp of swans, soloists and principals have either noisy pointe shoes or are forgetting how to dance quietly. When the swans danced it was overwhelmed by the clack of pointe shoes. When the cygnets danced the dance was punctuated by the percusive sounds of 8 feet landing. It must be that stage and how it is set up to project for opera!

Stars and Stripes!!! It leaves you feeling very patriotic even if it isn't the 4th of July if it's danced well and with spirit!

Stars and Stripes!!! It leaves you feeling very patriotic even if it isn't the 4th of July if it's danced well and with spirit!

As someone who is a mother of a dancer and a lover of ballet albeit the NYCB which is not known for the breadth of their mime in ballets...I think part of the problem is that many people do not know how to interpret the mime on stage. It just looks like gibberish to untrained eyes unless you know the story and can sort of guess what is being said. It's like listening to opera in a foreign language or watching sign language without understanding signing. We had a discussion at dinner tonight about this and we thought wait a minute, the Metropolitan Opera house is set up for super titles in every seat...what about translation like they do in opera? That would at least start to teach what is being said to those of us in the audience who enjoy the ballet without having the understanding of the finer points of mime. Not everyone in the audience is trained in dance and can understand what is being said. Now to my dancer this seems silly but to those of us who aren't trained dancers there needs to be a way to teach us what the gestures being mimed mean. Then we would go ahhhhhh instead of where is the dancing????

Ah and to a NYCB goer the miming seems like a space filler when they should be dancing! But, after going to see ABT this past week I have to say when it is done well it can be beautiful to see. I still felt at moments "where is the dancing????" what is all this miming? But when it furthers the story and you see the emotions it can help build to a crescendo that we saw in Giselle that was awe inspiring...even for someone who has seen a million NYCB performances and only 2 ABT performances.

We went on Thursday to see Giselle. It was breathtaking to watch. I am a NYCB person through and through but I thoroughly enjoyed this ballet. We saw Ananiashvili and Carreño dance and they received a slew of curtain calls that were well deserved and then some. The corp was also impressive! After seeing it my husband and I want to see more of ABT!

I was there at that rehearsal for Midsummer and no one in their right mind could have thought it was a private moment. They even have ushers who seat the people who are attending. The theater was full...and there was way too much talking.

The noise factor can also be because of the way the accoustics of the theaters are set up. At the State theater where NYCB is there is an on going issue with the resident Opera company because of accoustics. The State theater was designed specifically to dampen sound...the sound of pointe shoes on the stage at Mr. B's request. Now while that is fantastic for ballet it presents some problems for opera where they want to project sound. I just saw ABT at the Met and I did notice the sound of the shoes on the stage...it may be because the accoustics at the Met are tilted toward sound projection because of the Met Opera who is resident there too and has the upper hand so to speak at that house.;)

From the article it seems to say the arrangement, if they did affiliate, would not mean they would give up their season at the Met or their offices or studio space downtown in NYC. The question is whether this is a good move for them since they would give up their autonomy for a financial sure footing. There also seems to be lingering animosity from the whole Spisto tenure with people taking sides depending on where they came down in that whole mess. I would love to hear from the people who are more knowledgable than me on this and how they feel on the possiblity of a move!

The NY Times just ran an article talking about ABT and how it is trying to get itself righted financially. One possibility mentioned was to affiliate with the Kennedy Center in DC on a permanent basis. What do you all think of that idea? Article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/04/arts/dan...ance/04ABT.html